


start

by orphan_account



Series: rebirth [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Baggage, Gender Dysphoria, Other, Rebirth, The Kyuubi isn’t a bad guy, Trans Character, hes just a big spirit beast
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 20:48:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14197413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Rebirth- the renewal of the cycle.Wasn’t one life enough?The answer, of course, was a resounding no.





	start

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Claws Amidst the Cracks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12644355) by [Undead Artist (UndeadArtist)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndeadArtist/pseuds/Undead%20Artist). 



> I wanted to make even a pale reflection of that glorious fic, and I hope I did UndeadArtist proud.
> 
> It’s a seriously beautiful fic- there’s so much beautiful writing and it was an absolute delight to read.
> 
> UndeadArtist, if you read this, you are a divine amongst mortals, and you’ve given me a literal ton of writing ideas. Keep up the astounding work- I want to catch up to you one day, so don’t go too fast, please- and thank you for writing the masterpiece that is Claws Amidst the Cracks.

She lay there in the pool of her own blood, chained to the floor, cold blade lodged deep into her ribs, and she stares up at the starry skies, choked by the light pollution of the city that was enveloping her and cradling her cooling corpse. She gasps shallowly in pain, lung puncture filling the space with blood instead of words, and she gags softly at the caustic iron in her mouth.

Across from her, the grinning form of her torturer shifts over to stare her down further.

”Sorry, sweetie,” her girlfriend says, scraping her nails against her cold face and drawing blood from her mouth with a gentle touch-  _stayawayfrommestopityoudidthis_ _don’ttouchme-_ “but I found someone more fun.”

She wasn’t ready to die, wasn’t ready to embrace the blackness ensnaring her vision starting at the corners, wasn’t ready to cool away into the glacial chill of the grave. 

Death had knocked down the cans and won his prize- she was too late to stop time’s eternal trampling of her prone form- and she slips away.

———

She wakes from death’s sleep in another place. The sun filters through the windows, gleaning the fog of unconsciousness with razors of solar purification, and she _screams._ She falls out of the tiny bed, collapsing with a shriek onto a trash-covered floor, and she gasps for breath through the sheer horror of experiencing that final release of spirit.

The natural instinct of another brings her to the bathroom in measured steps, body finally allowing her to collapse to her knees on the floor and vomit into the bowl, acrid bile and something yellow-white rushing up and out of her shuddering, pale form.

What feels like an eternity of empty, heaving sobs follows, her heart crackling away under grief and pain and distress. She shakily gets back up to her feet and turns to look into a mirror, revealing a sunny-haired blonde with whisker marks and brilliant sapphire eyes. Her build isn’t feminine- it’s now quite masculine, sending shudders of discomfort and doubt through her soul. She had been male before in her other life- born as such, living in disquiet until she could pay for the hormonal supplements and the surgeries themselves, not to mention the therapy- and it felt like she was back at square one.

Beneath her skin, something shuffles and spirals with her discomfort- _chakra_ , an instinct of the body’s old passenger whispers- and she focuses on it, attempting to feel the flow and weft of the energy.

It goes black again.

——

She’s standing atop the surface of stagnant water. _Her._ Not the body, _her._  She giggles a little, a tiny spike of sane lunacy amongst this nonsensical world, and steps towards the massive cage that looms over her in the distance.

When she arrives at its gate, massive red eyes and sharp teeth glow in the dark. They, at first, are hostile, but then quickly snap into confusion and a tint of horror.

**_“Finally my jailor arri_ ** **_\- wait, what? Who are you?!”_ **

She stares up at the massive ocular receptors, unknowing, her head cocking sideways in similar confusion.  “ _Who are you?”_

The creature seems to have a moment of sheer panic.

_**“No. No, no, no, nononono!”** _ It begins to wail in anguish, teeth gnashing and pupils turning into slits of coal amongst burning red oceans. _**“I’m still trapped in one of you filthy humans!”**_

She watches it calm down. “I’m dead in my own world, though.”

It looks on in surprise.   ** _“What?”_**

The sewer and the cage spiral away into nothingness as she wakes back up.

——

 

The other, more instinctual part of her body (what she presumes is the afterimage of the body’s past owner), grabs a strange headband with a stylistic leaf she doesn’t recognize on it. The orange jumpsuit she is wearing disgusts her, and she tears it off, opting instead to wear the large grey hoodie that lay on the floor of the closet. A pair of black, sleek pants are drawn over her waist (she gags at the sight of the body’s sexual organs) and she slips on the shoes that lie there.

She makes note of the garbage strewn about the room and scrunches up her nose- she was no stranger to her own mess, being herself, but this was inexcusable- and decides to clean it later.

She swears to herself that this child, whoever they were before, would succeed so long as she was there.

The ‘autopilot’ takes her to the front of a building that other schoolchildren wander around or into. She steels her courage and enters, ignoring the curious stares of those she presumes are her ‘classmates’, choosing a seat far in the back, hoping to avoid the gazes of the room. She pulls her knees up to her chest, slips them under the jacket, and pulls over the hood, concealing her face and body behind the soft material. 

——

Sasuke Uchiha watches the Uzumaki child while others file into the room. Unlike before, the boy is withdrawn and silent instead of boisterous and unbearably loud, a vast departure from his previous state, and he decides his blood feud with _that man_ can wait- this was _new_ \- and he gets up from his seat to shuffle to the back of the classroom and sit next to him.

—

She watches the ebon-eyed boy take his seat next to her with suspicion. “What, usuratonkachi?” The young man huffs out, cheeks reddening as the others in class whisper and stare. “You’re not loud today. I need some quiet to think.” She just nods and says nothing- silence is valuable, and if he needs it she has no need to tarnish the moment- and she assumes from the insult that the two of them don’t get along, so there’s no point in ruining it further.

He seems nice. She’ll allow him to stay.

The boy seems a little confused by her silence, but accepts it all the same, opting to pull out some throwing blades (or at least what she assumes is throwing blades) and begins to sharpen them on a small whetstone. Yelling from the halls makes him tense up in what seems like annoyance or anger, and he lets out a mad sigh.

The door busts open, a long-haired blonde with a ponytail and a pinkette(?) blasting into the room, yelling about something stupid. The two rush up to her desk, squeaking about “Sasuke-kun is so cool” and something about...marrying him? She turns to look at the boy, who she assumes is Sasuke, and tilts her head in confusion. He sighs and makes a motion with his hand that she interprets as ‘idiots’.

She grins and nods. 

——

Sauske watches as Sakura grabs Naruto by his hoodie, yelling at him, and he sees the boy’s eyes glass slightly with what he’s seen in older jounin- a fight-or-flight reaction brought to the forefront of his mind by panic- and then Naruto reaches up, grabs her by the back of her head, and slams it into the desk before pushing her away.

The room is dead silent save for the slightly-heavier breathing of the blonde and the whimpers of the prone girl.

——

_Don’t touch me, don’t touch me, don’ttouchmedon’ttouchmeyou’llbreakmelike **sHe** dId _her mind screeches in panic as the girl shakes her body, static filling her head like a dense, flickering cloud.

She responds as the ‘autopilot’ seems to believe is right, and the static clears as she snaps out of the strange trancelike state. The class is watching her in what looks like shock. “Naruto?” The ebon-haired boy (Sasuke) asks, eyes filled with concern, “are you...?”

She nods and curls up more, attempting to salvage the situation before it’s escalated any further. Her seat-mate is smart enough not to touch her, and instead levels a baleful glare at the two ‘ladies’, growling out what sounds like a dismissal. The platinum blonde one is either obedient or observant enough to step away with a small frown.

She shudders a little and calms gradually, not listening to whatever the teacher said. Students file out three by three until she, ‘Sasuke’, and the pink one are the only ones in the room. She slowly reaches over for one of the throwing knives, looking at her seatmate, and he nods, sliding over the whetstone and the small blades. 

She sets to sharpening them, letting the repetition calm her quaking hands, and she sighs after the last one is razor-sharp, the darkened steel of its edge now a tad more silver than before. She focuses on her chakra and allows herself to sink below the waves.

——

The great beast within the cage sees her and moves closer, revealing a massive fox that lies down at the front of the cage.

**_“Human.”_** She nods. “Sir.” It cocks an eyebrow (if that’s even possible for a giant fox) and leans a little closer. **_“You refer to me as Sir. While partially incorrect, I appreciate your pathetic attempt at ‘manners’._** She grins. “What should I call you, then, oh esteemed one?” she asks with exaggerated panache, bowing deeply enough to get a face full of water. It chuckles, sniffing haughtily, and sits in a dignified pose. **_“I am the Kyūbi no Yōko, mortal, and I demand you respect me as such.”_**

She bows again, although now far more sincerely. “Very well, Kyūbi no Yōko, I am honored to make your acquaintance.”

It huffs, dipping its head in a semi-respectful nod, and returns to its resting position. **_“I’m sure you are, mortal- now, what exactly are you?”_** She recounts him her tale.

———

 Kurama watches the woman as she tells her story, sees her tics and her body movements, sees her convictions and vices realized in a story that interests him greatly, a story of her world and the realities of it. Those humans, _her humans,_  have no jutsu- no infinite spirit-fueled power to shape the world- they instead have raw ambition and creative genius.

 Flying vehicles that have breached orbit and landed their weak bodies on other celestial orbits, massive machines and complexes that gut the earth and process its resources into advanced technologies, ‘guns’ that fire shards of metal fast enough to splinter bone and shred flesh, bombs big enough to vaporize cities, masks that can prevent gases from corrupting lungs, presses to squeeze oranges and turn rock to dust, screens that display faraway places, ‘video games’, the ability to print solid objects with ‘lasers’ and so many other marvels of technical inventiveness.

Similarly, the other world is disturbing as well- forests of ancient trees destroyed and uprooted for extra space, thousands of honored kings and ancient wisdom broken and thrown away by raging hordes, citrus golems elected as false rulers, societies so deeply buried in greed and lust they’d rather die than give an ounce of that wealth away, mass extermination based solely on inconsequential things such as the god you believe in or the pigment of your flesh or the ancestry of your ancestors.

He isn’t sure whether to be amazed or horrified.

He clears his throat with loud rumbles. _“ **Well, human, I suppose I will allow you to wield my power,**_ ** _provided that I can witness the strength of your humanity’s creations.”_**

She grins. “We can do that, yeah.”

———

She surfaces into reality to find Sasuke frowning at the pink-haired one who’s squealing at him and giggling like a moron. He looks back to her, sees the spark of consciousness in her eyes, and mouths ‘help me’ softly. She lurches forwards and digs the kunai into the table, making her shriek and fall down the steps. Sasuke mouths ‘thank you’.

Their jounin-sensei strides into the room a moment later.

———

Kakashi looks out at his Genin team with guarded interest. They each turn to look at him, with Minato-sensei’s son (god, they’re so similar, aren’t they) wearing a hoodie and looking nothing like his normal self, the prodigy Uchiha quietly looking over a set of freshly-sharpened kunai, and the pink-haired one screeching at him about being late. 

“My first impression of you is...” he begins lazily, “..that you’re boring. Meet me on the roof.” He body flickers to the roof and waits for them to appear.

It takes them about three minutes to get up there. “Well,” he drawls, “now that we’re all here, tell me about yourselves.”

“Huh? What do you mean, Sensei?” The pink one asks, making him sigh.

“What I mean,” he says, eyelid twitching in annoyance, “is tell me about _you._ What do you like? What do you hate? What do you want to do? What’s your dream? Let’s start with blondie.”

———

She stands taller and clears her throat. “My birth name is Naruto Uzumaki, but I would prefer to be called Kyōsaku. I like to study chemistry, smell cooking smoke, listen to people’s life stories, practice using kunai and shuriken, and I guess that ramen’s an okay food.” Her teammates seem to actually be interested, and the grey-haired man seems suspicious.

 “I hate being touched,” she continues, grabbing their attention and keeping it with that line, “and I also hate those who abandon their friends and family. I dislike the taste of certain vegetables- asparagus especially, and I don’t appreciate being talked down to.”

”My dream is to be a medic,” she begins again, words bubbling up with passion, “and if I have to crack a few skulls to get that opportunity, you best believe it’ll be done properly.”

The jounin, Kakashi, looks surprised- so do Sasuke and Sakura.

”Uh, that’s... quite a revelation.” the jounin says, his eye widened with interest. “Now, uh- Uchiha, your turn.”

——

Sasuke steps forwards, looking to Nar- Kyōsaku, who nods and smiles softly under the hoodie. He steels himself.

“I am Sasuke Uchiha, sole survivor of the Uchiha Massacre.” He chokes up a little upon saying ‘Massacre’ but recovers and continues. “I like tomatoes, practicing Uchiha Clan techniques, and people who try to be sincere about themselves.” He looks back to see Kyōsaku’s soft smile, emboldened by the simple gesture, and turns back to look at his Sensei.

“I hate annoying people, wasting time with insincere people, and my brother.” He glowers a little, and Sensei seems a little sad, “My goal is to find justice for my clan, find my brother, and I dream to be a talented Shinobi, no matter the cost.”

Sensei smiles a little under his mask. “You sound like you’ve got a good idea for your future. Now you, Pinky.”

———

She watches as Sakura steps forwards and stands proudly. “I’m Sakura Haruno, and I like...”  Sakura looks at Sasuke and blushes, giggling. “I hate liars, and I want to...” Sakura looks at Sasuke and giggles some more, cheeks red like her dress.

 

Kyōsaku, Sasuke, and Kakashi aren’t impressed, staring her down with impassive stares.

“...Okay. I’ll meet you at Training Ground 7 tomorrow morning. Get some rest, and don’t eat breakfast- what I have planned for tomorrow will make you lose it.”

”Kyōsaku-san.” Sasuke begins, looking to his hoodie-clad teammate. “Thank you for telling us that.”

She nods. “Thank you, Sasuke-san, for being brave enough to share with us as well.”

As they part ways, Sakura runs off after Sasuke with a lovesick squeal of “Sasuke-kun! That was so cool!”

———

_Kyōsaku, eh?_

_‘Lay off it, you overgrown half-puppy.’_

_**I AM THE KYŪBI NO YŌKO, AND YOU WILL RESPECT MY NAME.** _

_‘Alright, okay, chill.’_

_**I will not ‘chill’.** _

_‘Fine. Be that way. Bet you couldn’t do it.’_

_**I am able to ‘chill’, of course, but I’m not going to sink so low as to follow mortal instructions.** _

She snorts into her hand. ‘ _Yeah, suure you can, puppy factory reject.’_

_**I WILL END YOU.** _

_‘You can try.’_

**Author's Note:**

> Kyōsaku means Chasm. I chose that as the rebirth name of our protagonist because there’s such an immense chasm between that world and her original home in terms of so many things.
> 
>  
> 
> Omake: Chemical
> 
> Kurama asks her about her previous profession, learning of her career in medicine (nothing really new) and a previous investment in exploring the ‘chemical sciences’, which seems to be the poisoner’s ability.
> 
> He’s given a greater understanding when she demonstrates in the mindspace- creating tablets of something that makes the waters bubble and burn, releasing acrid, painful scents that harm his nose.
> 
> As the stench clears and he gags on the hideousness of that scent, she explains that was several components that combine with water to create a ‘stink bomb’, which isn’t lethal- children used to make them as pranks- and his eyes widen.
> 
> When he retreats into the shared plane of the Bijuu, he brings along one that fits in his palm- flinging it with a blast of water at his siblings and cackling as they gag and choke back tears, the mind-controlled Isobu even breaking out of the massive genjutsu controlling him to screech in pain at the sage-cursed stench it created- and he escapes into his Jinchuuriki’s mindspace to gloat over his victory.
> 
> She just holds out a hand to ‘fist bump’, which he takes part in.


End file.
